Bird Flu News Blog

Compensation will be paid to poultry farmers in the country who lost their birds to Avian Influenza in Nigeria.

The Federal Ministry of Information and National Orientation said the money used to fund the farmers would  be from the World Bank’s 50 million Dollars Avian influenza Emergency Programme.

A local newspaper in Vietnam reported that the country is actively preparing human forces, health equipment and medicines to combat a potential outbreak of birdflu.

The country has prepared 1 million tablets of anti-bird flu medicine Tamiflu, 1,000 respirators, 100 tons of disinfection chemical Chloramin B, and hundreds of thousands of gloves and masks.

Early last week, Vietnam carried out a rehearsal on combating potential bird flu outbreaks among humans in there capital city.

Ongoing testing across Australia’s most susceptible regions have found no evidence of the new lethal strain of bird flu in wildlife.

Dr John Curran, from the Australian Quarantine Inspection Service, says continuing trapping and testing of wild birds across northern Australia has so far failed to isolate any live influenza viruses.

“But by the same token we’re still concerned that the global epidemic is continuing and that this has actually come closer to, the epidemic has come closer to Australia through Indonesia,” Dr Curran said.

“So that’s a concern that we have to keep our vigilance and keep monitoring wild birds in through northern Australia.”

Vehicles From Sudan entering Uganda will  have to go through a disinfecting process in Ugandas latest attempt to stop the spread of BirdFlu.

The process wil include disinfecting the car using a large disinfection wheel well while passengers will be required to disinfect their shoes.

Hassan el-Bushra, regional adviser for communicable diseases surveillance at the World Health Organisation, recently advised the press that a  healthy 39 year old woman died from the H5N1 virus in Egypt.

The woman, 39-year-old Hanan Aboul Magd of the Nile Delta province of Gharbiya, has been in hospital since Oct. 4 and has been treated with the drug Tamiflu, state news agency MENA said.

The woman was on a respirator but her condition was stable, MENA said. Her family was being tested for the virus.

Biosecurity New Zealand spoke to members of the press today saying after completing its first survey of commercial broiler and layer farms throughout the country they have found no trace of birdflu.

The study was the first phase of an ongoing surveillance programme. MAF will continue to conduct further surveillance to meet its originally stated objectives of confirming the absence of highly pathogenic influenza virus in New Zealand and meeting New Zealand’s international reporting obligations.

The World Health Organisation is urging pacific nations such as China, Japan, Australia to do more to prepare for a Bird Flu pandemic.

He told a meeting of health authorities from Western Pacific nations, meeting in Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city, that a speedy emergency response could be crucial in containing a pandemic.

“If rapid interventions are successful, the severe adverse health, social and economic consequences expected to result from a pandemic might be prevented,” he said.

The WHO made a statement earlier today about the cost of a birdflu pandemic to the global economy saying the figure would be around Two Trillion. A lot higher than first anticipated.

The comments on September 17 came as a senior World Health Organization official said the threat from the H5N1 avian-flu virus was just as real today as it was six months ago.

The World Bank has announced that it is  preparing a $15 million grant for Indonesia to help fight avian flu more effectively in the country.

The move came as the United Nations Avian Flu Coordinator, David Nabarro, called for sustained political commitment by world leaders to fighting bird flu, saying “there will be another influenza pandemic one day, but we don’t know when.�

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Laos is turning to puppets for there latest campaign to raise awareness of ways to prevent the spread of bird flu.

There will be a puppet show presented by the Laos National Puppet Theater and will bring up messages including washing your hands after handling poultry.